Masks
by fiesa
Summary: ANBU's masks are more than just that – masks. All of Konoha's Twelve have thought of them at one point in their lives. OneShot.


**Masks**

_Summary: ANBU's masks are more than just that – masks. Most of Konoha's Twelve have thought of it at one point in their lives. OneShot. _

_Warning: -_

_Set: Story-unrelated_

_Disclaimer: Standards apply._

* * *

><p>To the trained eye, an ANBU mask reveals more of the character of its bearer than civilians would believe.<p>

Knowing who carries which mask gives an ultimate advantage to anyone who can read and interpret accurately. If understood correctly and combined with experience and deeper insight into the characters of the bearer, ANBU masks allow a startlingly accurate evaluation of the person who carries it. It takes some practice, though, so most people never realize the depth of it.

It is not like it gives away feelings and facial expressions. Rather the opposite, the masks were designed to hide the face and everything it showed and ANBU masks were established to protect not only the identity of the bearer but also the civilians who, in one time or another, might ever come into contact with Konoha's elite force. At the same time, it serves to make the warriors indistinguishable from each other.

ANBU always seem to look the same, men and women alike. Their nondescript, grey and black uniform trousers, their sleeveless shirts and long, equally grey cloaks achieve the opposite of what Akatsuki's too-dark-to-be-invisible cloaks with their blood-red clouds achieve: they blend in with the shadows. An ANBU, if properly trained, is able to hide in a brightly lit room. Or _ought_ to be, at least. They all carry the same weapon, the katana sheathed on their backs – even though there are ANBU who vary their repertoire or make use of specialized weapons like the White Fang's chakra blade – and the same sign of their status: the black, curved ANBU tattoo on their left upper arm. And their masks, of course.

* * *

><p>The ANBU mask is both burden and protection.<p>

It hides away the face and the feelings of a person who is constantly on the move, always on the run. Konoha has few ANBU but still relies on them strongly. Elite shinobi, they receive the missions no one else is trusted with – not for their strength and skill but for their mental stability. An ANBU gets to see more violence, blood and cruelty than even jounin see. They don't have holidays, or days off, or simply breaks. They are on duty 24/7 and even though there are periods in which there is nothing to do most ANBU find themselves unable to rest. Their life has become one of killing and hunting and escape is almost impossible.

This is the burden of the mask.

ANBU help to keep the peace. But they mostly watch from far while others enjoy what they have labored for. If an ANBU is exhausted or tired or sad or desperate, nobody notices. His mask sees to it thoroughly.

When their hearts grow cold and the life fades from their eyes, the mask is the only thing that keeps them sane. Because they know all it takes is to walk into the Hokage's office, lay down the mask on the desk in front of the mightiest man (or, more recently, woman) of the continent and speak the words.

This is the protection the mask provides.

It happens rarely, though. Most ANBU are loyal to their deaths and though their lives are short and brutal they love Hidden Leaf too much to give up their job. But if one does so (Kakashi, for example) he isn't scorned for leaving.

Though ANBU know how to hold on to grudges. Ask Itachi what happened when he left. Ask the thirty-three people who tried to assassinate the newborn son of the Fourth.

ANBU are a paradox, as are their masks.

* * *

><p>At one point in their lives, most of the generation known as Konoha's Twelve has more or less contemplated the significance of an ANBU mask. It happens at varying times in their lives and for different occasions and every single one of the twelve – or eleven, depending on whether Sasuke is counted to be one of them or not – spent some time thinking them over. Even though only few ever come close to taking up the mask – and others don't even consider doing it – at least, they have pondered its meaning.<p>

* * *

><p>Hinata is one of those who never even think about becoming an ANBU.<p>

And that's just as good because Neji probably would suffer a heart attack if she pronounced a desire to take up a job with a near one hundred percent mortality rate. But thoughtful as the young kunoichi is, she contemplates the topic for a week.

Because Neji has been accepted into ANBU.

Hinata is shy and kind and soft-hearted. She agonizes over the fact that good people sell their soul (she doesn't use the exact words but it's something along the line) in order to protect her. In order to protect _people like her._ People who like to live in peace, who aren't strong like Naruto and Neji or determined and beautiful like Tenten. It just seems so _unfair._ Why is the world like this? Why can't just everyone live in peace and happiness?

But Hinata's vision of the world isn't clouded. She knows it's the way it is. One week, she thinks it over, and she comes up with a solution: She will become even stronger.

And she will take up the responsibility to lead her clan.

Hinata vows, for the second time in her life, to become stronger. She will learn. She will fight. She will fail at times (she knows that much) but she will go on, always looking forward. She will take over the Clan and she will lead it so none of her family members will have to fall into the shadows for her to live her life peacefully. Or, at least, none of the following generations will have to suffer.

And she personally presents Neji with his ANBU mask when he comes home.

* * *

><p>Kiba, as many boys, has once dreamed of becoming an ANBU.<p>

When he was a child, he used to play ANBU and missing-nin with his cousins. They used to chase each other around the dog kennels, hiding in the dog houses and ambushing each other with loud screams and threats, thinking that was what ANBU did. Not seldom, such an afternoon ended up with all of them being thoroughly scrubbed under a cold stream of water, screaming like hell but caught in the grip of some or another Inuzuka woman. Playing in a dog kennel definitely doesn't make you smell like a spring flower.

For a time at the Academy he boasted with it, like many other boys his age. To the sufferings of sorely afflicted teachers, he drew katanas and masks onto his worksheets instead of doing actual work and kept a continuous contest with few others in besting each other in inventing new techniques they would use.

When he turned fourteen, though, all the thoughts of ever becoming an ANBU were banished from his mind the day his sister laughed at him and told him he would never be allowed to take Akamaru on a mission as an ANBU since he was far too short-tempered.

Without knowing that Hana was only partly true (she, after all, was allowed to take her dogs but it had cost her a lot of coaxing, cajoling and seriously extended training for her dogs) Kiba never again thought about it.

Instead, he settled for becoming a great shinobi. Hana was relieved.

* * *

><p>Chouji would never talk about it, but at one point, he wondered whether he could be an ANBU as well.<p>

Realistic as he was, he quickly concluded that there were little chances in him ever joining. He wasn't affected at all by this knowledge.

There are people who strive to be like others and there are people who know just what they can be and strive to be exactly that – the best of themselves. Chouji is a person like that. He gets up every morning and sees the world in a new day's light. Every day is special to him. He is thankful for the small things that give him joy – be it a lunch out with his team or a little flower at the roadside. His dreams of the future are equally simple as Shikamaru's and still not as defined.

First and foremost, Chouji dreams of becoming a good man.

Then a good friend. Then a good shinobi.

Some people would say those things come as one. Chouji knows a good man isn't necessarily a good shinobi and a good shinobi isn't necessarily a good friend. He strives to be all three, just like his father. Chouza Akimichi is everything Chouji considers as a worthy man – and a good father on top.

So, one day, when Chouji sees two ANBU leave with the swish of their grey robes and Ino's eyes follow them with a strange expression and Shikamaru's glance barely skips over them, Chouji looks up and lifts a hand in greeting.

"What was that?" Ino asked. Chouji shrugged.

"Someone has to do the job."

Yes, someone has. But Chouji doesn't think he'd be suited for it. It doesn't matter. He has his own dreams.

* * *

><p>Neji, as expected, was the first one of the Rookie Twelve who took up his ANBU mask.<p>

The drive he had wasn't easy to describe. There was sense of duty towards the village – and, at the same time, he still felt the twinge of pain of _They killed my father._ There was some stubbornness – as in _the Hyuuga don't need me, anyway – _and some pride, as in _I'm elite._ But more than anything he wanted ten other people to be able to sleep peacefully at night.

It only worked out halfway, because Tenten followed him in three month's time while two others came one year later.

Neji was glad. He really was. ANBU operated in groups of two or three and Neji never had gotten the knack of cooperating and working in a team. In _his_ team, he could. In other teams, he failed miserably. Tenten and Lee always had been the only ones he had been able to work with.

Since it fell to the newly recruited ANBU to chose an animal and have his mask done, he wondered what kind of animal spirit he was supposed to chose. He never had been particularly creative and he put it off as unimportant triviality. But still, as long as he didn't have a mask he wouldn't be able to work as an ANBU.

When he returned home, his younger cousin Hinata was waiting for him, sitting on the porch patiently. In her white kimono and with only a small, flickering lantern by her side she was an isle of light in the otherwise dark grounds. She greeted him softly and held out a packet. It was wrapped in soft cloth that slipped to the ground unnoticed as he stared at the mask in utter surprise. Of course, only Hinata could have thought of something like that. That evening, he swore his fealty to her without saying a word, and she understood and smiled.

His mask depicted a bird.

* * *

><p>Sakura wondered about ANBU at least twice, and both times a different person was involved.<p>

The first time, she worried what they would do to Sasuke once they found him. That first time she was twelve and Naruto, Shikamaru and the rest had just returned from their fruitless mission to retrieve him. Even before going to see Naruto, Sakura went to see Kakashi.

"_Is he back? Did Naruto stop him?"_

_Kakashi looked at her with his one eye, serious and reprimanding. "You should go and ask Naruto, Sakura. He was the one who put his life on the line."_

_At that time Sakura didn't understand the hint Kakashi was giving her. Instead, she felt her heart grow heavy. She turned her back on her teacher and ran, refusing to believe what he had indicated at. Sasuke was back, he surely was, Naruto had promised her. Sasuke wouldn't be out there, still on the run, now an official traitor to the village. Because if he was and Naruto hadn't managed to make him come home that meant that soon, ANBU would be sent out to get him and that would mean he would get hurt and he might die and… _

_She stopped at Naruto's hospital room door and heard the last words spoken and knew Sasuke never would come back. And when she entered and saw Naruto bandaged from head to toe and still smiling, vowing to keep his promise, she felt like she wanted to cry. _

The second time, Sakura thought about ANBU because the last member of Team 7 got to join.

_Naruto._

Sakura worried. Oh yes, she worried a lot. Naruto had met Sasuke two times since their last clash in the Valley of the End. Three times, he had returned to Hidden Leaf more dead than alive. Years, strain and disappointment had wiped the smile off his face (and given him a strained, overly-cheerful one she hated) and the continuous fight against both kyuubi and the Council had left him bitter and frustrated. Sakura watched as he burned his dreams to ashes one after another and let go of hope. He would still smile around her but she watched him leave every time with his shoulders hunched like an old man's.

The second time Sakura thought about ANBU she just prayed. Naruto _had to be_ fine. And she left a light in her window every night.

* * *

><p>Shino always wore a mask.<p>

His sun glasses protected his eyes from harsh sunlight, but they also hid them from others. Few people knew the Aburame Clan had eyes as red as the Uchiha's sharingan. But while the Uchiha were able to "switch off" their eyes the Aburame never could. Sometimes Shino looked into a mirror and was scared of himself. The kikai had turned his eyes a grizzly blood-red and there wasn't any iris, just like with the Hyuuga. But while he thought Hinata's eyes looked pretty he disliked his own. He was thankful for the protection his sunglasses provided and he only twice took them off: Once to show his team mates what he did look like, and once to show Naruto. Neither one of them flinched, neither one of them regarded him with contempt later on. But once he took a stroll in the gardens of the Aburame compound and forgot his glasses, and a girl passing by saw him and ran from him screaming.

It wasn't her fault and it wasn't his, either. But there was nothing he could do.

And Kiba, Hinata and Naruto accepted him the way he was. He didn't need anything else.

That way, Shino contemplated masks for a great part of his life. Quite like Chouji, he didn't feel the need to become an ANBU. But as Naruto joined, he presented him with a gift: a photograph of all of their friends, carefully wrapped in a water-proof bag. Naruto was already slipping away but Shino hoped the picture would anchor him to the village – and to them – enough to always make him return.

* * *

><p>Lee, like his beloved sensei Gai, never showed inclination towards ANBU.<p>

For once, ANBU didn't only need taijutsu but had to be skilled in various levels of genjutsu and ninjutsu as well. Maybe that wouldn't have hindered Lee if he had tried hard enough but he still preferred to stay a normal shinobi. Anyway, his character was too cheerful, too filled with hope and optimism to ever think like an ANBU. Lee was painfully honest. He disliked stealth and undercover-missions and, most of all, the fact that being an ANBU sometimes required to stab an enemy in the back and not face him square-off. That probably was the main reason he never wanted to join.

Another reason he wasn't aware of was that, if he had ever asked to join, he would have been forced to take a thorough medical examination before. At this point he would have been rejected. His body already was a mess, even though it didn't look like it from the outside. Oh yes, he still was able to take missions and to fight and such. But a few more encounters like the one with Gaara and Kimimarou and Lee would be crippled forever. Opening the Heaven's Gates was dangerous and, literally, could take him straight to Heaven. If he ever had tried, Gai-sensei (and Tenten and Neji who had the suspicion that there were strings attached to the immense power the Gates provided) would have tried to convince him otherwise. Little did they know that despite the fact that Tenten and Neji soon joined ANBU Lee only ever had strived to be like Gai-sensei. So if his teacher wasn't ANBU Lee wouldn't be one, either.

Or, maybe, it was just because green spandex would have given him away immediately.

* * *

><p>Tenten was the first one of the two female members of Konoha Twelve to enter ANBU.<p>

The decision followed quickly after Neji told them he would join. But Tenten had different reasons to enter. In the past, she had always thought that her abilities would be best suited for becoming a shinobi of Konoha. She hadn't wanted to be a kunoichi, she wasn't pretty enough or even remotely girly. But she was strong and had remarkable stamina and her style of fighting was perfect for missions in bigger groups in which she could take on a great amount of enemies while her teammates finished them off. But when Neji said he'd join ANBU she cast aside those dreams.

She was obviously needed elsewhere.

She would never tell _anyone_ – and she did take her secret to the grave – that she had joined to make sure Neji stayed alive. She didn't want to protect him from danger, no. She knew he was quite capable of doing so himself. He was a good shinobi and he would become a great ANBU, as well. But Neji needed someone who reminded him of _who he was_. His worst enemy was himself and Tenten knew that. So she joined ANBU a few months after he did, passing the entrance exams spectacularly, and immediately was assigned to him as his partner. She knew why – the ANBU captain was anything but blind and even Neji realized he worked badly in a team. But they had fought together since they had been twelve and they made a perfect unit. And even though she did die before Neji – much, much later though – she died with the knowledge that she had saved him many times. He had saved her, too, but that last time was her fight alone and she won.

Neji never wondered why she had chosen the kind of mask she wore. She was Heaven and her mask was a dragon.

* * *

><p>Shikamaru spend an hour wondering and then decided it was too troublesome.<p>

Besides, he had another goal. Asuma-sensei had left him his child and he would train it. And he wouldn't train it to be an ANBU. He would train the child to be a good and loyal shinobi, like his or her father had been. He would teach it everything he knew and he would protect it in Asuma's stead. Maybe Ino and Chouji would help him. They had loved Asuma the same way he had loved him and they always would remain Team Ten.

And really, a few years later, when the war against Akatsuki and Kabuto ended, he became jounin instructor to the newly founded Team Ten. It was pure chance the team had the same number his once had had but Ino and Chouji laughed anyway. It was good to see them laughing again, so Shikamaru grinned and leaned back to watch the clouds.

Among his new students there was a little girl with red eyes and brown hair.

* * *

><p>Naruto went to prove a point.<p>

Nobody had thought him capable of ever becoming ANBU. He had trained and fought and killed and protected so much he felt weary of it. He had chased after Sasuke for five years since he had returned with Jirayia-sensei and he still hadn't been able to bring him back. Instead, he had been almost killed three times – once by Sasuke, twice by his lackeys. Ten to one was unfair, even if one was the chaos ninja of Konoha.

Naruto was _sick_ of everything.

Sick of people staring at him and whispering, sick of people watching his every step because he had sworn to bring back Sasuke. Yes, he was a hero, he had saved Konoha and blah blah. But public opinion is a whore who changes her mind every second and he soon was a nuisance again. He couldn't let go of Sasuke. That cost him everything he had gained before.

So he applied to ANBU. They told him only Itachi and Kakashi had passed the exams faster than him. He didn't care much anymore.

His mask was a falcon.

It wasn't chance that he picked the same animal Sasuke had chosen for his new team. It was a desperate provocation but it resulted only in darkness. He was _good_ as an ANBU, no doubt. But unlike Tenten and Neji he wasn't able to keep his heart out of his missions. What ultimately saved him where two things: his friends – and the little candle Sakura placed in the window of her apartment every night.

She was alive. And she taught him how to be alive again with her words and her eyes.

* * *

><p>Nobody would have expected Ino to join ANBU.<p>

Nobody. She did it anyway. Not to prove a point, like Naruto, not to do _something_, like Neji, and not to save someone, like Tenten. She went for one simple reason: It was the only thing she could do.

Ino wasn't like Sakura. She wasn't a great medic. Tsunade watched her struggle three weeks and refused to teach her after that.

She wasn't like Hinata, who was a good kunoichi. Hinata was pure, something Ino never had been. Hinata was soft-hearted and kind and thoughtful. Ino couldn't compare herself to her.

She wasn't like Shikamaru and Chouji, who knew exactly _how_ they could serve their village.

She wasn't like Kiba or Shino or Lee who had thought about ANBU once and decided they wouldn't join.

Ino wasn't like anyone of her friends. That wasn't the most important thing. What mattered was that she wasn't particularly _good_ in anything, that she hadn't _anything_ like Hinata had her kindness and Neji his ideals and Sakura her goals. She was an average kunoichi and perhaps it would have been best to just stay like that, to go on missions and to take on kunoichi missions as other female ninja did. But Ino wanted to _protect._

Shikamaru and Chouji, Kurenai and her baby daughter. Sakura and Naruto, who suffered so much, and Hinata and Kiba and Shino and Neji and Tenten and Lee and every single person in their village. They told her it was impossible: she was neither particularly skilled in taijutsu and genjutsu. Ino tracked down Anko and _made _her train her. And she probably was insistent enough because Mitarashi Anko, who had refused any student the Hokage tried to push on her, started to train her. Ino entered ANBU almost at the same time with Naruto, and they made a good team.

Her mask was a stag.

Shikamaru was the only one who needed three years to get the meaning.

* * *

><p>Sasuke never had the chance to think about it.<p>

He was the last of the Konoha Twelve and some didn't even count him since he had betrayed the village when he was twelve and had never come back. Naruto had chased after him for a long time until he had had better things to do (fight a war, for example) and Sasuke would never be able to say what he felt when he realized his one-time team-mate had finally _buried_ him. Probably something would have broken in him if there had been anything left to break. Sasuke was too far gone to even care, to even think of Naruto as anything else as the leader of the village he would destroy.

If things had gone differently and he had stayed in Konoha he would have joined the ANBU, too. He would have done so together with Naruto and Sakura and the three of them would have been the only ones of the Konoha's Twelve to join ANBU in this reality. If things had gone differently, Shikamaru would have taken up the post of the Rokudaime because Naruto would have died in order to defeat the kyuubi. Sasuke and Sakura would have gone on, protecting the village their best friend had died for, and whether they would die on a mission or as old people at home nobody ever would know. If things had gone differently, Ino would have left Konoha to go to Suna and only returned years later and Shino and Kiba still would have helped Hinata to become the leader of the Clan. Neji would do the same, together with Tenten, and all of them would take care of a genin team by now. Lee would still work with Gai-sensei and the entire world would shiver when their names fell.

If things had gone differently, ironically, Sasuke would have chosen a fox for his ANBU mask.


End file.
